Arnis

The Philippines is an island nation in the Western Pacific of almost 70 million
people where more than 70 dialects are spoken. Over the centuries the Philippines
has been a crossroad for various cultures trading and fighting.

Kali is the mother art of the modern Filipino Martial Arts. Records from
the Malay Sri-Vishaya empire dating to the 8th century A.D. refer to Kali
as the art of the Philippines.1 According to historians, the Ten Datus of
Borneo brought there fighting methods to the island of Panay. Here, basic
reading, writing and Kali were taught in the schools.

On April 27, 1521, Magellan died on Mactan Island at the hands of Chief
Lapu-Lapu--a Kali practitioner. Due to the loss of written records, the exact
techniques of Kali remain a mystery today although elements of Kali remain
alive in the foundation of today's Filipino Martial Arts.

The Spanish began a 400 year occupation of the islands late in the 16th century.
To suppress opposition to their rule, the Spanish banned the teaching of
Kali. Elements of the art were hidden in folk plays and native dance. However,
over time, Spanish fencing methods were blended into the indigenous fighting
framework. Under Spanish influence, the native art became known as eskrima,
estocada, arnis de mano or arnis.

The Filipino Martial Arts assume different names in different regions. In
the Manila area, the art is known as Arnis or Pananandata, in Pangasinan
as Kalirongan, in the Ilocos region of Luzon as Kabaro-an, and in the Visayas
as Eskrima.

Arnis historians have cited as many as 200 systems or styles of
Arnis-Eskrima-Kali. Names describing the range of fighting include Largo
(long-distance), Medio (medium-range) and Corto or Serrada (close, in-fighting).
Names based on movement include Abanyko (fanning), Palis-Palis (go with the
force) Sungkiti (flicking), Ocho-Ocho (figure eight) and Lastico (snapping).
Systems can be called by the choice of weapon, e.g., solo baston (single
cane), doble baston or sinawali (double cane), espada y daga (sword and dagger),
mano-mano or de kadina (empty-hands).

Modern Arnis was developed by both Grandmaster Remy Presas and his brother
Grandmaster Ernesto Presas of Negros Oriental Province in the Visayas. Remy
was a well-known Balintawak champion in the 1950's. Remy emigrated to the
U.S. in the early 70's and was one of the first arnisadors to introduce the
art outside of the Philippines. Ernesto, founder of Filipino Mano-Mano, resides
in Manila and teaches at the University of Santo Tomas and the Lyceum as
well as conducts seminars throughout the Philippines, Europe and the U.S.

Modern Arnis is a composite of various classical and modern fighting systems
used in the Philippines. The student of Modern Arnis is introduced to the
various systems described above in the full range of fighting. An emphasis
is placed on drills to train the student to react instinctively. Students
are encouraged to develop their own "style" oftechniques within the Modern
Arnis framework.

In contrast to many other oriental martial arts, the Arnis student first
learns how to handle and defend against weapons. This philosophy is to a
large degree culturally bound, but also has a practical application. The
Philippines has traditionally been a blade-oriented society. Even today,
in many rural areas both men and women use swords and knives in their daily
work. Self-defense using a blade is the preferred methog. In a practical
sense, the rationale for training a student with weapons first and then later
with hands and feet is (1)training cane to cane is safer than taking punches
and kicks to the body, and (2) if you can defend against a weapon then fighting
against punches and kicks will come easily because training with canes conditions
one to avoid errors in judgement.